The anticipation has been building in me for day, weeks. But now we are actually going to do it - we are going to see an active Volvano.
We hopped in the ute. I was in the open back with Squiddy, Bosun, Sea Bird (our Brazilian crew member) and Varekai's crew, with captain and the driver in the front. The road went bump, bump, bump, all the way to the foot of the volcano. We passed some amazing trees on the way. The were magical like the Faraway tree. The trees filled me with happiness. I imagined the trees would be much smaller and definitely not as spectacular.
At the foot of the Volcano we were led to a flat area with lots of logs as seats.everyone was put into country groups while the people from the local village did two dances for us. When the second dance happened, one of the girls around my age took my hand for me to join the villagers to do the dance. It made me feel special, I was the only one. At the end the two girls pressed their faces against mine, transferring some of their face paint on my face.
Now it was time for another bumpy ute trip. This time up the volcano. I was very squishy this time. Then at last. We are at the volcano.
I could see the smoke towering above the volcano, hundreds of meters into the sky. I could hear the boom of the lava being shot out of the ground. The sound waves of the explosions pushed my clothes back and popped my ears. At the foot of the volcano I could see dried lava from many eruptions before.
I felt excited and cold. There are no railings around the rim of the volcano and where we stood it was only 2m wide with a drop on either side. The hole in the middle looked like a gigantic meteor crater with three holes that have smoke, ash, lava and ask coming out. At first I was scared but when it got dark I just felt amazed.
The chunks of lava were the size of a bus and got flung 300m high. It was a spectacular, amazing, dazzling, terrific sight. I just couldn't leave.
The memory will be one I will never forget. I will stay in me forever.
Aqua D